Cho Kuk, head of the Innovation Policy Research Institute of the Cho Kuk Innovation Party, said on the 5th regarding single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that “the Office of the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs needs to conduct an inspection” and “Kim Yong-beom, chief of the Policy Office at the Presidential Office, and others must be held responsible.”

Posting on Facebook that day, he wrote, “the government introduction of single-stock leveraged ETFs is an unequivocal policy failure,” and, “the current situation is a failure of state-directed finance produced by the core of the government policy apparatus, led by Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom, including the Policy Office of the Presidential Office, the Office for Government Policy Coordination, the Financial Services Commission, and the Financial Supervisory Service.”

He said, “it is impossible not to question why the government pushed a money move from real estate to the stock market in such a loose and hasty way,” and, “this unmistakable failure of state-directed finance cannot simply be glossed over. Responsibility must be sought from Kim Yong-beom as well as Yoon Chang-ryeol, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, Lee Eok-won, chair of the Financial Services Commission, and Lee Chan-jin, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service.”

Then he said, “from a mysterious and inexplicable introduction process, to delayed responses that amplified the damage, to makeshift measures with no effectiveness, the entire process from start to finish must be disclosed and those who should be held responsible must take responsibility,” adding, “based on past experience as Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs, the Office of the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs needs to inspect those involved in this affair.”

He said, “this is also necessary for the success of the Lee Jae Myung administration,” and, “as the ruling Democratic Party remains silent, I will state this clearly from a red-team perspective.” He added, “the government should return to its original commitment to a KOSPI 5000 era,” and, “the stock market must not turn into a casino.”